7-18-10 18lbs at Orange

LAKE/LOCATION: Orange Lake

WATER TEMP: 87-94

WATER COLOR & VISIBILITY: tannic, slightly muddy, visibility ~2’

WEATHER: partly cloudy, hot – ~96, winds in the morning S 10, but it calmed to nothing in the afternoon

ESTIMATED CALENDER PERIOD: summer

BITE TIMES: all day, more with the wind blowing

FISH BEHAVIOR: 1^st I have to say I was out yesterday.  I caught some dinks but lost a ton of fish along with having problems getting the fish to fully take the bait while flipping.  My friend caught a 10.5# in the morning but it slowed way down in the afternoon.

Today the plan was to find some small schoolie fish in the morning and then flip some new stuff.  I started in the flat on the north end behind the island tossing traps, a swim jig, shallow cranks, a Sammy to no avail.  There were fish popping the surface but I just couldn’t make anything happen.

About an hour in I decided to start flipping.   I began in the matts I fished yesterday (the same ones the 10# was taken out of but couldn’t get a bite.  I moved to the “bank” and started flipping anything unusual that pushed out into water deeper than 3’ (pad/hydrilla points jutting out, floating matts jutting out etc).  The wind was blowing into the area and I started catching fish up to 3lbs on little matt points and turns along with the edges of floating matts.

Following the deeper water idea (especially in lieu of the water temp) I went into an area where I had seen 6-7’ depth yesterday and started flipping all the matts I could find in 5 or more feet of water.  Oddly, the deeper water was situated a ways back from the main lake and was adjacent to depths of only 3-4’.  Also weird was the fact that the deeper water seemed to turn back and forth somewhat like a creek channel.

I flipped matts focusing on lily pads situated inside the hydrilla matts and isolated floating matts. (these were basically the 2 scenarios where I caught fish).  I ended up taking 18-19lbs sticking with deeper water and focusing on the 2 scenarios above.  Early in the day, it seemed you could pump fish out a bit more, whereas later the day it was all about the drop.  Also interesting, with all my better fish there was no bite – just a hold/weight.  Those fish that did hit it on the pump seemed to hit it as it hit the top of the mat or as it was coming up.  Lastly, flipping straight plastic and a little bigger bait was essential.  I spent all of yesterday flipping a punch skirt till the end of the day (when I actually caught some fish).  I got a ton of bites but the fish wouldn’t “take” the bait.  I started off today flipping a medium sized Paca Craw and when I ran out of those went to a Yum Wooly Beaver – both in watermelon red variations.

5-15-10 Fifteen Pounds a Flippin

LAKE/LOCATION: Rodman

WATER TEMP: 75-82

WATER COLOR & VISIBILITY: tannic, but clear clear

WEATHER: partly cloudy, winds kicked up ~9ish 10 SSE

ESTIMATED CALENDER PERIOD: pre summer, summer

BITE TIMES: till 8am, then after 11:30

FISH BEHAVIOR: Right off the bat I ran to the lock canal and went to fish the pad fields just north or the campground figuring there would be new matts coming up – there weren’t.  Spent a bit tossing a Rage Tail around the pads without luck although there was bait all over on top.

I ran back down the barge canal and threw the Rage Shad to the north side at any matted hydrilla.  I ended up taking one 3 lbs that hit on the inside edge of the grass and then missed another in about the same area.  It seemed following that (and a mess of boats with the Wolfson tournament) the topwater bite shut off.  I flipped a bit in mixing in a trap and a worm.  Got a couple bites on flipping but no takers.

Just outside of Kenwood I flipped some matts of hydrilla along with some isolated spatterdock  that was wedged in between pads and cattails.  Had a couple bites and took a dink on a BDS from a 7’ channel between matts but that was about it.  There were a bunch of left over – I’m assuming – bream beds but I didn’t see any bass cruising them.

Moving further south I tossed a frog on the scum/hydrilla flats next to the river channel (south of Orange Springs in the stump field).  I moved pretty quick pausing in the holes but couldn’t get anything to come after it.  There were definitely some fish in there but whether it was my cadence or what, I couldn’t get them to bite.

I finally started getting into fish when I started flipping isolated matts.  I caught fish both off straight hydrilla and pads inside of matts.  It seemed however that isolated pad clumps inside of matts were more consistent.  Basically, I would flip (1.5oz, punch skirt, bb cricket) small isolated patches – sometimes as small as 5’ and then start the motor and idle to another matt.  Fish bit both on the drop and on the pump along with on the edge and a ways into the matt.  The main key was pads mixed in and “isolated”.  The matts that produced a bit better fish were along those cuts coming from the barge canal and thus deeper water, i.e. 9-12’.